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Topic: The Bloods of the Black Road (Read 3130 times)

Since the realm seems to have a footing now, I decided I may as well make a forum topic. Copied from the wiki:

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The Gods have left the world. They do not act, they are not seen, and they have not been seen. It is clear. They are gone.

There is one God left, the Last God. He is the Hooded God of death, the only God still seen to act. He has knowledge of all that has been and all that shall come to pass, for all things must die - even worlds. However, through death comes life, and this is the crux of the Creed of the Black Road.==The Origin and the Fisherwoman==

The Hooded God revealed himself to a Magvellian fisherwoman many years ago. He spoke with her at length, revealing many truths, including his omniscience. She is the mother of the Creed, although long since executed as a heretic. She began to spread the words she had heard, and soon had a large following in her region. The other churches tried to have her silenced, but the truth will rise to the surface and the Creed grew.

Finally, a war was waged against the Bloods and they were driven beyond the great darkness in the West. In that retreat were the Children of the Hundred, warrior elites, born.

The Bloods have grown and strengthened there ever since, and with the help of the first and greatest First of the Battle Inkallim Sirrhas Azali they carved out their lands from the surrounding petty nobles as fearless fighters.==Fate and the Creed==

The Hooded God sees all and knows all, and so everything is only as it could only be: everything that happens, happens by Fate. This cannot be changed any more than the sea can be dried away. What the Hooded God has seen must come to pass, and he sees all, so all must come to pass as he sees it.

Thus can no man change his future, and from this the core of the Creed of the Black Road is derived. In the face of Fate, there can be no personal responsibility: no pride, but no shame. No success, but no failure, is decided by any man any more than the sea chooses to break upon the shore. We all walk the Black Road of Fate, but the followers of the Creed know it and embrace it.

This then is the mantra of the Black Road: "My feet are on the Road. I know not pride."

This forsaking of pride is the hardest part of walking the Black Road intentionally. However, it is also a releasing of shame and failure, and is as much a reward as a punishment.

==The Reforging of the World==

The Hooded God explained one last thing to the Fisherwoman: that he was going to reforge the world anew, with none of the mistakes the Gods made originally. However, he foresaw one thing that must happen first: all must accept the truth of the Black Road, and all must walk it intentionally.

From death there is life, and the Last God has seen every failing and foible of life and the world. As the forest grows from the ashes of the old forest, so the world will rise anew from its broken state, finer than ever before.

This is the ultimate goal of the Black Road, and the dream of all.==The Children of the Hundred, or The Inkallim==

In the retreat of the Bloods of the Black Road, lead by the original Thane of Thanes of the Gyre blood, one hundred men of his army stayed to hold back the collected armies in pursuit of the Bloods. These hundred men and women held for long enough for the Bloods to escape in safety, and in their honour the elite assassins, loremasters, and warriors are called the Inkallim, or Children of the Hundred, and marked with a raven tattoo.

==Thanes and Bloods==

The political unit of the Black Road is the Blood, led by a Thane. The Bloods are not a kingdom: the Thane of Thanes is comparable to a king, but their power is not absolute and they must take the counsel of the other Thanes.

Thaneship is passed on to the firstborn son or a chosen heir, referred to as the Bloodheir.

War between Bloods is rare, as all serve the same Creed, but it has happened before.

The Inkallim are outside of the Bloods. The Thane of Thanes is expected to listen to their advice closely, as they provide a perspective that is, if not politically unmotivated, politically differently motivated.

==Meta: Acknowledgment==

The Black Road is heavily cribbed from Brian Ruckley's ''Godless World'' series of novels. Anyone who wants a total understanding of how it works should go read them - a thousand pages of novels' worth of background is hard to compress well.

I figured there was space in the game for a serious religious fanatic realm (the Cult of the Void being a lot more RP than crunch), and the backstory from the novels fits quite nicely into M&F.

Would the interpretation that for everyone to follow the creed it is necessary to either convert or slay the unbelievers be a valid one?

Very much so. Gives a bit of a motive for the conflict that people occasionally complain the game is short on, provided we don't get flattened. It also opens up possibilities for more peaceful expansion, if people are willing to roll with the RP.

For instance, I'd love to see Black Road enclaves open up in allied realms - still loyal to their realm, but inflienced by the Creed. That kind of thing. It'll probably be a while, though, if ever.

I'd like to try to avoid being too friendly with too many of the neighbouring realms, since I think there's too much of that going on at the moment, but I certainly won't be avoiding it. We'll see how things play out.

I'd like to try to avoid being too friendly with too many of the neighbouring realms, since I think there's too much of that going on at the moment, but I certainly won't be avoiding it. We'll see how things play out.

It's been a while! The Bloods of the Black Road are on a gentle kind of warpath. Now's a good time to think about hopping in, if being a fearless religious fanatic (or a fearful religious fanatic, or just someone using the religion to gain power, or...) does it for you.

Well the last bandit I played believed in the Hooded God and thus used the tenants of the Black Road as an excuse to conduct his actions. It was fun to play with!

I missed this, but I'm glad you decided to do that!

It's been a while, but the Gyre Blood is back. In an attempt to get some kind of life back into the game, there's a "go! Fly! Be free!" lordship offer up in one place, and I'll be pretty much seeding a significant area with that kind of thing.

Heyo! Arx, you wouldn't happen to be in the southwest near Arx Vesperia, would you? If so... I've got news for you... The Arkh Imperium is rising in that general location. I've got room for vassals, if you've a character slot open. Magnus is the current placeholder with the Black Order of the Southern Reach, but as soon as the rightful heir to the Arrakeshi throne arrives by ship in the next few days, the true nation will be forged.

I considered having Alekhsandr do it on my behalf, but he's been around long enough to not want to delve into any grand schemes. He'll be living out his days in the Kenos Republic, hopefully away from drama and trouble. What with being a royal Exile, it makes sense for him not want to deal with starting or ruling kingdoms. (RP backstory and all.)

Whatever happened to the Black Road? Kind of miss y'all fuckers.

Really wish someone would start a questionable upstart holy order so I had an excuse to have a rival as the Black Order, cough cough hint hint...

And I'm all out of characters. Peran is up to her usual shenanigans, her virtually unknown sister Thera is busy making the world a smaller place, Rascarl is trying to found a Blood, and I have another character I just play for shenanigans also trying to shrink the world.

The Black Road originally went extinct in a combination of a neat RP plotline and me getting sick of the variously bugged and incomplete states of the game. We'll see how it does this time.